Pages

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Surprises and Technology and Sore Throats (Random Tuesday)

And now, some random news from around here, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked.

Mr. BA, a friend and client, got home from the hospital last week. He's back in the hospital, though, blood clot in the lung. His poor wife is feeling the strain, but a friend has repaired the dryer and came to get her car to go repair it. Into each life a little rain must fall, but they've had a flood recently.

Speaking of floods, some areas around here got a deluge Saturday and Sunday. We got some rain, but the good thing is we really got cooler weather. Not that it won't warm up again, but the downward trend to winter has begun. Every time it rains, the temperatures will go down, and come back up but not quite as high as the time before. Then in the spring, the trend reverses until we are back into the usual summer pattern.

Yesterday was Sweetie's birthday, he is now 64. This year, i really did fool him into thinking i was not making the banana pudding because i waited until he went to the Deacon meeting at the church to make it. He was so surprised! It's fun to wait and not let him know i'm preparing it, but this time it almost backfired. It took so long for it to "pudding up" (thicken) that i was afraid he'd get home before it was done.

Bigger Girl found it quite funny that i was standing over the pot, stirring and yelling "Would you pudding already!"

Speaking of Bigger Girl, she has strep throat again. She gets it so often now that i'm wondering if she's got tonsil trouble behind it. After all, Grandpa was 24 when he had his tonsils out, and i was 24 when i had to get mine out. She's 24, and if it's going to happen, it will probably be soon.

My friend DiDreaming's landlady is out of town for the next few months, and just as happened when she left this time last year, the house is falling apart. We think the house waits until landlady leaves town to need any and all repairs. Last year it was the septic tank and a few other minor things, this year it's the tub stopped draining and the latch handle fell off of the dishwasher. What is it about landlady's going on her yearly trip to see all the relatives that makes the house implode? If i knew the answer, i guess i would be rich.

It is also beyond me how technology can work one minute and not the next, and then come back up. Sunday morning i woke up to no internet, the wifi modem was dead. Unplugged and replugged, dead. Plugged other stuff in the wall to check the socket, that stuff worked. Pushed the reset button on the back, dead. Called customer support, got an appointment for a tech for Monday evening.

We went to church, and got home to find out the electricity had gone out for a while when we were gone, and the modem was suddenly working again! Canceled the tech call. It's weird, but i'll take it, as long as it keeps working.

#1 Son is plotting and scheming with Friend Chris and another person to find an apartment early next year. We will see where it goes, but i know he is itching to get out of mom's house.

Ms. S let me go to her house last week and we went over a few of her bookshelves. She gave me some books to give away, and i made her promise to let me keep coming back until we've gone through all the books. Also i got her to promise that she will keep paring down books until her shelves are full and not a single book more. It's a drop in the bucket compared to everything that is in her house, but it's a start, and i'm especially glad she realizes i'm doing this for friendship and not for pay.

That's about all from here today. Hope everyone has a great Tuesday!

Today is:

Feast of Good & Plenty (the candies)

Food Day -- US (inspiring people to change their diets and our food policies)

Take Back Your Time Day -- Canada; U.S. (anniversary of the day in the US that the Fair Labor Standards Act went into effect, specifying a 40-hour work week as the standard, in 1938)

United Nations Day

Disarmament Week begins

World Development Information Day

World Origami Days -- held each year from today, the birth anniversary of Lillian Oppenheimer, founder of the first origami societies in Britain and the US, until Nov. 11, which is Origami Day in Japan; a couple of good sites to explore about origami are here and here

Birthdays Today:

Monica, 1980

Kevin Kline, 1947

F. Murray Abraham, 1939

Bill Wyman, 1936

David Nelson, 1936

J. P. "Big Bopper" Richardson, 1930

Y. A. Tittle, 1926

Moss Hart, 1904

Melvin Purvis, 1903

Alexandra David-Neel, 1868 (first female foreigner to explore Tibet)

Belva A. Bennett Lockwood, 1838

Sarah Joseph Hale, 1788 (author of "Mary had a little lamb")

Antony van Leeuwenhoek, 1632

Domitian, Roman Emperor, 51

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Dancing at Lughnasa"(Play), 1991

"Voices for Today"(Britten Op. 75), 1965

"Take Me Out to the Ball Game"(Single release), 1908

"Zibeunerbaron/The Gypsy Baron"(Strauss Opera), 1885

The first Transcontinental Telegram is sent, 1861

Today in History:

Cathedral of Chartres is dedicated, 1260

The Treaty of Westphalia ends the 30 Years War, recognized the independence of Switzerland, and marks the end of the Holy Roman Empire, 1648

Felix Mendelssohn, age 9, performs his first public concert in Berlin, 1818

The match is patented, by A. Phillips, 1836

The first US transcontinental telegram is sent, from San Francisco to Washington, DC, ending the need for the Pony Express after only 2 years, 1861

Levi P. Morton, US ambassador to France, drives the first rivet for the Statue of Liberty, 1881

Dr. Robert Koch discovers the germ that causes tuberculosis, 1882

Anna Taylor becomes the first woman to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, 1901

Sometimes when our electricity or Comcast has issues our router (maybe the modem,too) will need to be restarted. Usually, it's the router that needs it. I find it easier to unplug the router from the cable wait for approx. 30 seconds before plugging it back into the modem. After it goes through its flashing this light and that, it usually connects with the Internet. Technology can be screwy! Our weather is cooling down after the rain,too. I don't think it'll get warm as it has been, though. I like the cooler temps but I'm not looking forward to winter. I hope your daughter feels better soon but if she needs her tonsils removed then it'd be nice to get that done before the holidays. There's always something needing one's attention if it's not a sick kid, it's the house, right? lol Oh well...hopefully your repairs needed will be okay until landlady returns. Happy random, my friend!

I love that you were able to surprise Sweetie for his birthday - and that Bigger Girl got a kick out of you encouraging the pudding to 'pudding'...that cracked me up! Happy belated Birthday to your Sweetie! Mine turns 60 in April and is starting to feel the passage of time is marching too fast for his liking. ;)

Your modem sounds suspect - if whomever you have it through will replace it free, I'd totally hedge my bets and have them do it. I had to do that once when a modem we had was acting funky like that - the new modem was much better at keeping us connected! :)